Severe hypertriglyceridemia in pregnancy has potentially fatal maternal and neonatal complications. It is a rare entity and most case reports detail complications and management following the occurrence of pancreatitis. Our case report details the management of severe hypertriglyceridemia in an asymptomatic pregnant female from 24 weeks’ gestation with no previous history of pancreatitis or cardiovascular disease.
Introduction:
Gestational hypertriglyceridemia is a rare entity. There is no published incidence and no guidelines regarding its management in pregnancy.i The vast majority of literature centres around the management of hypertriglyceridemia in pregnant patients that have developed pancreatitis. There is a paucity of literature pertaining to the management of asymptomatic severe hypertriglyceridemia.
Objective:
The purpose of this case report was to explore severe hypertriglyceridemia in pregnancy and to describe the strategy implemented to avoid maternal and foetal morbidity in this context. The evidence for the various components of our multimodal approach was also elucidated.
Methods:
A PubMed search was undertaken for the following terms, alone and in combination: “hypertriglyceridaemia”, “pregnancy”, “plasmapheresis”, “pancreatitis” and “insulin”.